Warning: this page contains images and discussion of human remains
Students from Whitefield School in High Barnet, north London, welcomed MOLA osteologists to lead an all-day interactive workshop about life and death in Victorian London.
The school children were given an opportunity to gain hands-on experience of archaeology and the study of human remains from professionals.
The event was part of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) education initiative that aims to spark interest in new topics through hands-on learning activities with professionals, relating their everyday schooling to interesting real-world subjects.
Through a series of talks and practical sessions, involving the handling of the skeletons archaeologically excavated by MOLA, the students gained a basic knowledge of the methods and techniques used in the examination of human skeletal remains. This included how to estimate the age and sex of a skeleton and how the careful examination of the bones and teeth may reveal clues about the health of an individual and if they had suffered from disease, infection or trauma.
